


Sleeping Safe

by the_jedi_ninja



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Bad Dreams, Finnpoe - Freeform, Fluff, I Will Go Down With This Ship, M/M, Nightmares, Poe Dameron/Finn Fluff, Stormpilot, The First Order, sleeping, they help each other sleep
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-10
Updated: 2016-07-10
Packaged: 2018-07-22 20:03:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7452232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_jedi_ninja/pseuds/the_jedi_ninja
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Finn was sure he was the only one in the whole of the base still awake. He couldn’t work out why. After he was taken off the painkillers and moved out of the private room in Med Bay he’d had no problem sleeping, in The First Order the room with his squadron he’d never had any issue sleeping. So what was different now?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sleeping Safe

**Author's Note:**

> I know the whole nightmare/helping each other sleep thing has been done to death, but here's my version of it!

Finn was finally getting out of the Med Bay. As he had been for so much of the past month, Poe was by his side. Poe talked him through finer details of the base as they walked to the room Finn had been allocated. He’d had short trips out of Med Bay while he recovered his strength, but now he got to see the flight hanger, the control room and the mess hall. Poe kept up a constant stream of commentary the whole time, interrupted continually by other members of the Resistance who just wanted to say hello. To his surprise, Finn received just as many smiles and respectful nods, if not friendly ones, as Poe did. When he remarked on this Poe just laughed.  
“I told you buddy. You’re kind of a big deal in the Resistance.”

Eventually they made it to the sleeping quarters.  
“This one’s yours,” said Poe opening the door with a swipe of his hand across the sensor panel. Finn stepped into the now revealed room. It was small and basic, bunk beds on one wall, a desk and wardrobe on the other. Slowly Finn walked around, examining things and touching them gently. He’d never had anything that he could consider his before. Not until Poe gave him his name, and then his jacket. Funny how both things that were truly his felt like gifts from Poe. Smiling, Finn turned to his companion.  
“But there’s two beds, am I not sharing?”  
Poe looked at the ground. “Our attack on Star Killer Base kinna took it’s toll.”  
“Oh.” Finn hadn’t thought about that. All those empty bunks…  
“I’m on my own at the moment as well,” said Poe. “But I’ll probably get a new roommate before you. We thought it best if you had a bit of your own space for a while.”  
Finn touched the top of the desk with a dark finger, not wanting to look at Poe, in case he saw blame in the eyes of the man who had helped rescue him from the life he had been so desperate to escape.  
“Come on,” said Poe, unable to stand the silence that had fallen between the two of them. “I’ll show you my room, it’s just down the hall.”

Poe’s room was just down the hall. Five doors. Finn counted them without realising it. Part of his training by The First Order. As soon as he realised he’d memorised that fact, he tried to forget it, but it seemed like it had been burnt into his brain.  
Swiping open the door Finn saw a room that was simultaneously identical to his, and yet so incredibly different. Poe’s room smelt different, like engine oil and identity, like it was lived in. It was obvious that Poe’s bunk was the top one. The covers were all over the place while the bottom bunk was neatly made, the pillow fluffed and the covers tucked in military style.  
Finn reached out to stroke the pillow without quite knowing why.  
“What was his name?” he asked, his voice so quiet that he would forgive Poe if he didn’t hear it.  
“Falon,” replied Poe just as quietly. “He was a good pilot, and a better man.”  
“I’m so sorry.”  
“Me too…”

It was hours later before Finn returned to that corridor. Although the vast majority of the base was still socialising after dinner, Finn hadn’t felt up to it. Poe had understood and walked him to his room. “Don’t want you getting lost on your first day out,” he’d said with a wink.  
“ ‘Night Poe.”  
“See you in the morning Finn.” Suddenly Poe reached out and grabbed Finn’s upper arm in a strong grip. “It’s good to have you up and about buddy.”  
Finn just smiled in return and clasped his hand briefly on top of Poe’s. He was glad he was up and about too, part of him could still hardly believe that he’d managed to escape the First Order in one piece, that his life was his own, that he could do what he wanted. Except he knew he’d never leave The Resistance now. He’d had his chance to leave, but he’d chosen to stay. Finn didn’t mind, at least the decision had been his own.

Finn had heard the rest of the base go to bed and he still wasn’t sleeping. He had tossed and turned for hours, counting each voice as it passed his door, hearing the faint hiss of dorm doors sliding open and closed as others turned in for the night. It had been quiet for ages now though. Finn was sure he was the only one in the whole of the base still awake. He couldn’t work out why. After he was taken off the painkillers and moved out of the private room in Med Bay he’d had no problem sleeping, in The First Order the room with his squadron he’d never had any issue sleeping. So what was different now?  
Five minutes later, Finn was counting the doors along the corridor, stopping outside the fifth one down.

“Finn?”  
A sleepy Poe answered the gentle knocking at his door. His hair was ruffled in a way it never was during the day and his eyes were heavy with sleep. Finn wished he’d checked the time before leaving his own room, but then, his feet had seemed to move of their own free will to Poe’s door.  
“Sorry, I can’t sleep. I’ve never, uh, I’ve always slept in a room with other people before…”  
Finn wasn’t even sure if Poe understood the vague explanation he’d given him. Poe however stood to the side, letting Finn slip into his room past him.  
“Bottom bunk’s free.”  
“Thanks,” whispered a grateful Finn before climbing into bed and falling asleep to the rhythmic in and out of his friend’s breathing.

Finn couldn’t sleep without Poe in the room. That deep dreamless slumber of the dead would only come to him once Poe had crept into the room and climbed onto the bunk above. Poe started leaving the Mess Hall earlier in the evenings than he normally would have done, knowing Finn was still recovering from a horrific injury and needed all the sleep he could get. Finn stayed after dinner a little later than he was comfortable with, knowing that Poe always came back early for his sake. Neither of them addressed the unspoken routine they’d set up, but they never broke it either. Finn made more friends, his strength returning slowly until eventually he and Poe were turning in at the same time.

——

Poe woke in a cold sweat gasping for breath. It took a few moments for reality to return to him. The dream had been so vivid, the shine on the black mask, the creak of the leather gloves, the pain as his mind was torn open, again, and again, and again. It was a long time since he’d had one so vividly. When Finn had first saved him, they’d occurred every night. He dreamed the same thing on a loop, it only breaking if he managed to get to the point where Finn rescued him. Finn’s desperate clutching of his wrists felt more real to him than anything he’d ever felt before, rooting his mind back in the truth of what had happened. Eventually General Organa noticed the bags under his eyes and sent him to the base therapist. Talking about it had helped, the dreams occurred less frequently, and more often than not he got to the point where he could go back to sleep without the dream coming back that night.

Tonight it was his own screams in the dream that had woken him, Kylo Ren dragging the information out of him like he was pulling a tooth. Poe was shaking under his covers, silently cursing the betrayal of his sleeping brain. He knew that going back to sleep now meant another nightmare. Finn hadn’t reached him in his dream, Poe would be right back at the start.  
As Poe calmed himself, breathing in the bunk below reached his panicked brain. Poe focused on it, timing his own breaths to his friend’s. Soon his breathing was back to normal, the shaking of his hands almost imperceptible. Poe lay back down, pulling the covers up to his chin. He was reluctant to go back to sleep. He didn’t want to experience that again tonight, didn’t want to relive the torture, risk waking Finn up with his tossing and turning. Making a decision, Poe pushed his covers back again and silently slid off his bunk onto the floor. Padding through the room, so as not to wake Finn, Poe opened up the wardrobe and grabbed a t-shirt and pair of jogging bottoms. He’d pass the rest of the night in the gym, or working on his X-Wing, or tinkering with something in the workshop. Anything to keep sleep at bay.  
The door of the dorm had just hissed open when a noise from Finn’s bunk made Poe pause.  
“Poe?” Finn’s voice was thick with sleep and Poe could just make him out, propped up on one elbow.  
“I’m just going out to the workshop, go back to sleep.” Poe tried to make his voice as calming as possible, not wanting to explain himself at the very moment. Finn however, had different ideas.  
“But - it’s the middle of the night.” A quick tap of his overhead clock revealed the accurate time. “It’s 3.23 am.”  
The door hissed shut on its automatic timer and Poe sighed.  
“I know, but I can’t go back to sleep. I had a bad dream.”  
“I didn’t know you had bad dreams.”  
Poe sighed again, this was not how he wanted to talk about this. He didn’t want to tell Finn about it at all, Poe knew his friend would just feel guilty, even though he had no direct hand in his torture. Even though Finn was the very reason Poe was still around to have bad dreams.  
“I don’t, not very often, not for ages.”  
“It’s about the First Order, isn’t it?” Finn was more awake now, not alert, but enough to see Poe leaning his head against their door, still in his jammies, some clothes clutched in his hands. “You can tell me Poe, it’s fine. I understand.”  
“Yeah,” said Poe, somewhat resigned now. “It’s about the First Order. It’s always the same, I’m in that chair and Kylo Ren is there, and then I wake up and if I go back to sleep I’m right back at the start.”  
“Nothing helps?”  
Poe’s next words were so soft it was almost as if he hadn’t said them. Perhaps he was afraid of the truth saying them would bring. “You do…”  
The silence after those words felt so long to Poe that he began to think Finn hadn’t heard him, or perhaps was pretending not to hear him.

Despite the fact Poe had spoken those words as quietly as he could, to Finn it was like they had been shouted across the room. Right up to that moment, he’d never been sure of what he meant to Poe but now he knew without a doubt. They had saved each other from the First Order, they were still saving each other, even now.  
“Come on then,” said Finn, shuffling back towards the wall in his bed, tugging the covers down a little. Poe crinkled his brow in confusion, making a noise he didn’t think he’d ever heard before from his mouth. Something halfway between confusion, and denial and acceptance.  
“You said I helped,” explained Finn. “So let me help.”  
Slowly, Poe stepped towards Finn’s bed and Finn patted the space beside him that he’d created. The base’s bunks were small, but there was just room for Poe to snuggle in beside Finn, back to chest. Finn wrapped his arms around Poe and held his wrists, more gently and with none of the urgency that he had back on Star Killer Base, but it was a solid grip and Poe immediately knew there would be no more nightmares tonight. Maybe there would never be any again, not while Finn held him like that.

“Thank you,” whispered Poe to Finn’s hands.  
“Any time,” replied a now fast fading Finn to the back of Poe’s neck.  
Within minutes they were both asleep, and the resistance pilot slept more deeply than he had in months, wrapped in the comforting embrace of an ex-stormtrooper.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! If there were any particular sentences that really stood out for you, please quote them in the comments. :)
> 
> Check out my slow burn university AU Stormpilot fic here: http://archiveofourown.org/works/7497321/chapters/17040579


End file.
